CREATOR'S SUMMARY
Modern slavery is a problem we don’t hear about often but many of us are aware that it does exist in some areas of the modern world. However, most people don’t know how much slavery contributes to our lives through the products we consume on a daily basis. Also, due to the complexity of the supply chain, brands themselves do not know where all of their materials and resources come from which is why many do not have any kind of ethical certification on their goods.
Trace is an award-winning campaign concept which seeks to encourage the consumer to question their favourite brands to investigate their supply chains and provide evidence that they are not endorsing slave labour.
BRAND MESSAGE
Our core aim is to encourage the consumer to question and enter into discussion with their favourite brands about their supply chain. We wish that all companies would investigate every aspect of their supply chain and remove any traces of slave labour, from the sourcing of the raw materials, production of goods, transportation and more.
INITIAL CAMPAIGN
To kick start the campaign, ambassadors from the organisation would go out and start a guerrilla sticker campaign, in which they would apply fingerprint stickers onto popular branded products that do not have any kind of ethical certification. Each finger print would link back to a real-life story of modern slavery that is related to the product itself, which customers could find on the Trace website.
The copy makes a subtle reference to the allergy advice notices found on most food products.
As well as the fingerprint itself, a replacement barcode would be added to the back which would alter the information on the receipt to say “Slave Labour” instead of the product name. Although this part is subtle and many may not notice, it is just like the problem with modern slavery, it is hidden in plain sight.
THE WEBSITE
Finally, I created a website which will house all of the information about the campaign, provide ways to get involved and share real life stories. By taking a photo of the fingerprints from the guerilla sticker campaign, you can access stories of those effected directly by that trade on the website to give more of a personal impact to the campaign.